Wow! This final journey toward the end of the year has been an exciting ride for the Generalist PM. A flurry of new subscriptions over the past week has put us within 8 subscribers of our goal for 2023, something I am thrilled by. If you have supported me this year as I’ve embarked on this journey with you - from the bottom of my heart - thank you. If you are new in this past week, thank you for joining! Each week you’ll get practical and actionable content in your inbox and if you ever feel it isn’t I hope you’ll reach out and tell me why! Finally, if you have been reading this casually from links on social media or because a friend forwarded you the issue, I hope you’ll subscribe.
This week I’m loving
This time of year is full of posts about how you should conduct an annual review and plan your upcoming success based on your reflections. Do you find this process useful?
I think the path of a generalist may be confusing for this exercise as what we are doing in any given time period may not reflect our true calling, passions, and destiny. I’ve never been an annual review person but as a project manager, I do like planning.
Enter some practical advice from the generalist whisperer Kathryn Montbriand.
If you are feeling like 2024 may be a daunting blank page - check out Kathryn’s 8 exercises to map out your desired future. I look forward to hearing which one was most useful to you.
Tool of the week
To round out the year of tool recommendations, here’s a new tradition you might enjoy - sending yourself a letter in the future.
I loved this idea for the outcomes of your reflections as you color-in the blank page of your plan for 2024. And, like all things in life, there’s a tool for that.
This simple little platform allows you to type up an email to yourself, select a date you want to receive it by, and voila - you’ve got mail.
And apparently, 20 million people have sent themselves letters in 20 years, so it must be working!
An interesting read
To round out the year, one more list of books to consider reading in 2024. Here is a great list from Thinkers360. Below I’ve highlighted the reads I think will be really interesting to generalists.
Bridgebuilders: How Government can Transcend Boundaries to Solve Big Problems - William Eggers
Touting the importance of leaders as connectors who manage horizontally, not vertically and who can select team members with the capabilities to solve hard problems, this book sounds like it is a treatise for hiring generalists in the face of the world’s toughest problems.
Campfire Lessons for Leaders: How Uncovering Our Past Can Propel us Forward - Tony Martignetti
This book is a guidebook to leading an intentional and purposeful life. Just released a few weeks ago it should give key insights into how to weave your past into your present. A key skill for every generalist.
Got a favorite book you think our generalist community should read?
A tip
One challenge for many project managers is that we don’t come with an education in business. I think generalist project managers are very likely to struggle with this challenge as we are usually coming to the career of project management from an area of interest that initially fueled our passion.
I can personally attest that the learning curve from science major to project management professional has had many challenges related to learning to understand “business”.
For 2024 I’m going to try to focus our “tips” section on these gaps. I look forward to hearing whether this will help close gaps for you - or if you have something else you need tips on.
When we talk about big picture performance for a business - what do we mean?
Here are some common “business metrics” that your leadership team may be referencing when they discuss “performance”.
Profit margin:
This metric is important because it tells us how successful a business is at making money. It will be expressed as a percentage that represents the amount of revenue a company gets to keep after subtracting all costs. For example, I sell a product for $100. The product requires $15 in supplies, $30 in labor, $5 in packaging, and $7 in shipping per unit produced. I also pay $2 per unit sold in business taxes. This means my total costs are $59. My profit is therefore: $100-$59 = $41. My profit margin is calculated simply as $41/$100 = 0.41 or 41%.
Revenue growth:
This metric requires a consistent time period being assessed. For example, Q1 or January - March of each year. Then we examine the total or net revenue in at least two similar periods. For example, Q1 net revenue in 2022 and 2023. If we see a positive trend between the periods we have revenue growth. If we see a negative trend between the periods we have revenue decline.
A lesson
We talk often about lessons learned in project management, but how do you know you are identifying the right lessons? Loved these practical questions you can use to help identify the right lessons next time you close out a project from the ever-wise Jasper Polak.
Image credit: Jasper Polak Project Leaders newsletter
Thanks for reading this week! In January I am launching a second publication focused on value delivery and organizational chemistry. If you love my writing and you are interested in organizational design, value delivery, and strategic execution I hope you’ll subscribe!